Mother Goose

Isn’t it wonderful that nowadays, we not only have the traditional Christmas and New Year pantomime season to entertain us, we also get a bonus period of panto fun and frolics at half term! And having enjoyed the sheer quality of Market Drayton Amateur Operatic & Dramatic Society’s youth production of ‘HONK! Jr’ last October, I was very much looking forward to making the relatively short journey from Stone to the Festival Drayton Centre to review ‘Mother Goose’ and eggspecting a great evening’s entertainment. And that’s exactly what I got as the MDAODS Company simply eggcelled themselves once again in a truly fabulous production – bright, cheerful and full of delightful characters.

We all know that you can’t have a pantomime without a goodie and a baddie and David Maun’s new telling of this timeless tale brought magically to life was no exception. Following a short overture, we were taken to ‘Somewhere Betwixt and Between’ where, on the good side, we met Fairy Paxo, Mother Goose’s Magical Helper played by Jasmine Morris, and on the bad side, The Demon King of The Underworld, portrayed by Jess Keir. And how excellent they both were, making an immediate impact on the audience with the prologue, skilfully delivered in rhyme, and setting a very high level of performance.

As the curtains opened, we arrived in the ‘Village of Sweet Content’ and were greeted with the most joyous and colourful spectacle of the whole company in a musical medley of ‘Move Your Feet’, ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ and ’Sunshine Day’ from the movie ‘Trolls’ which got the show off to a rip-roaring start and deservedly earned a huge round of applause.

As the young ensemble collected rugs and settled into small groups to enjoy a village picnic, we first met Sam, an out of work actor, and Ella, Sam’s girlfriend, hilariously played by Robin James and Mim Emmas, who rattled off a few corny jokes before their new employer, The Squire of Sweet Content (Jessica Emmas), arrived to collect the rent owed to him by Mother Goose. Much to his annoyance, he was out of luck as only Jill, Mother Goose’s daughter (Emma-Kate Rowe-Bland), was at home and as he marched off in a huff, Jack Horner (Cathy Baker) arrived to console his beloved Jill in a beautifully sung duet of ‘Die With A Smile’.

Next to arrive on stage was Billy, Mother Goose’s silly son, comically played by Kat Turner, who was keen to tell us all about himself and introduce his pets, Taylor and Travis, the two goldfish in the tank he was carrying. In true panto style and having placed the tank on a table on the right-hand side of the stage, he asked the audience to shout out if anyone tried to pinch it. Much to everybody’s enjoyment, we had a few practice runs before Billy was happy and dashed off to find his mother.

Following a generous helping of hissing and booing from the audience, the Demon King cast his next unkind spell on Mother Goose who entered in a bit of a daze, struggling to establish exactly where she was! Having pulled herself together and only just managed to say a quick ‘hello’ to the audience, the Squire entered with an eviction notice for the sixty pounds rent she owed and with only three days left to pay it. She cleverly suggested Good Friday, May Day and Christmas Day but the Squire was unamused and demanded the outstanding rent immediately. Fortunately, Jack arrived in the nick of time to save the day and settle the outstanding debt which he then tricked the Squire into believing that it was he who owed the money to Mother Goose!

Leaving the Squire to lick his wounds, our friends all exited into Mother Goose’s house as Priscilla, beautifully made up and costumed as the Golden Goose and portrayed with tremendous skill by Louise Pounds, entered on the other side of the stage. Curiously looking around from house to house, and eventually knocking on Mother Goose’s door, there followed lots of fun and audience participation, as they both kept dodging each other.

Finally side by side with her beautiful Priscilla, Mother Goose, the Queen of children’s fiction, majestically portrayed by James Marshall as the flamboyant panto dame extraordinaire, was happy and content with hilarious tales to tell and sporting the first of an outrageous wardrobe of costumes we were going to enjoy for the rest of the evening. And it wasn’t very long before she’d also be rich as Priscilla laid the first of three golden eggs, each increasing in size, which everybody celebrated with a rousing rendition of ‘Golden’.

In the next scene, we all enjoyed the humorous banter between Sam and Ella before the Squire arrived to check progress on the evictions they were supposed to be making. Having not made any at all, there were no wages to be had but in a clever mathematical conundrum they demonstrated using chalk on a blackboard, our friends managed to diddle the Squire out of eight pounds and twelve shillings! How we laughed as the Squire stood looking at the blackboard, scratching his head and trying to work it out before realising that he had been tricked again! That’s panto for you!

We were now off to ‘The Village School’ for the start of some hilarious shenanigans in which Billy Goose always seemed to come off worse! After being joined by Sam and Ella, who had been briefed by the Squire to find out where the golden eggs were being stored, there followed a good helping of slapstick comedy as our friends attempted to make a pie. Of course, just about everything that could go wrong went wrong and after finally putting the pie in the oven to bake, there was a tremendous explosion with Billy’s comic line “Hey mum, it must have been self-raising flour after all!”. To round the scene off, there was  a rousing performance of ‘Revolting Children’ by the junior members of the company who cleverly incorporated some large cubes with individual letters on all sides to spell out different words at the start of the song.

Furious that Mother Goose was now richer than him and giving money away to all the poor villagers, the Squire called upon the Demon King to help with hatching a plan to kidnap Priscilla which involved his two stooges posing as waiters at Mother Goose’s Grand Ball but not before they had clearly expressed their devious selves in song and dance in a very slick performance of ‘Bad Guys’.

It was now time for us to join all the frivolity in The Ballroom at Goose Hall and as the curtains opened we were greeted with a very luxurious bright and colourful setting with several of the ensemble putting the finishing touches to the décor and the Squire, Sam and Ella lurking in the background. As our ‘hostess with the mostest’ made her grand entrance in glittering red and gold to an upbeat version of ‘Get This Party Started’, it wasn’t long before the Squire put his plan into action and declare his love for Mother Goose, giving Sam and Ella the opportunity to catch Priscilla in a huge net which after a hilarious chase around the stage, left our two stooges inside the net themselves and the Squire’s plan foiled!  A well performed medley of ‘Don’t Stop Moving’ and Hot Stuff’ provided a fitting end to the first half.

Interval over and now in the Kitchen of Goose Hall, the second half started with a beautifully staged version of Bjork’s ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, and it needed to be quiet as a very hungover Mother Goose entered feeling very sorry for herself with an ice-pack on her head and not in the best of moods! Having refused to give Jack and Jill some money to get married and Billy a few pounds to buy a CD, he accused his mother of being mean, old and ugly which the Demon King quickly seized upon and offered her the opportunity to look young and beautiful by bathing in the magic pool. As she set off to find it, deep in the forest, Billy, now sorry for what he’d said to his mum, and Priscilla entered to round off the scene with a touching duet of ‘Count On Me’.

Despite Fairy Paxo’s efforts to stop Mother Goose entering the Magic Pool and sacrificing the love and friendship of Priscilla, The Demon King won the conflict and after encouraging her to dive in, he quickly left, taking the golden goose with him. There followed the most enchanting ballet to the music of Lady Gaga’s ‘Abracadabra’, performed by the junior company, all beautifully costumed in black leotards with shimmering blue and silver hoods, before Mother Goose emerged from the pool looking very glamorous in a blonde wig and long sparkling silver dress.

Sadly it wasn’t very long before she was regretting her new youth and beauty as none of her family or friends, who had been desperately searching the forest to find her and Priscilla, liked the new look and just wanted their dear old mother and friend back to the way she was. Quick to the rescue, Fairy Paxo suggested that a further dip in the magic pool would  reverse the spell and very soon Mother Goose was her lovable old self again. But what of Priscilla? Our good fairy suggested that the only way to get her back was to visit the Court of the Queen of Gooseland (Suzanne Gupta) which she did and with the support of our friends and to cut a long story short, Priscilla was safely returned to her dear old mum. And the rest, as they say, is history as they all lived happily ever after.

But you can’t have a pantomime without a good old audience sing song and ‘Goosey Goosey Goosey, lay a golden egg for me’ was very enjoyable and a perfect end to the performance.

We had enjoyed a truly wonderful evening of traditional family entertainment. Along with the principal characters, the supporting cast and ensemble, especially the youngsters, performed with great skill, energy and enthusiasm and were clearly enjoying every minute of being on stage. The sets, the costumes and, in particular, the lighting and sound were also all of a very high theatrical standard.

There was so many dedicated members of the MDAODS Company responsible for bringing David Maun’s new telling of this traditional tale to the stage in such an exceptional production and it would be almost impossible to name all of them. This said and, in particular, I must congratulate Director/Producer/Choreographers Becky Turner and Louise Pounds for their outstanding skills and vision and to Matt Baker and his band for the very high quality of musical accompaniment.

Thank you so much for inviting me to your latest production and for your warm welcome. I greatly look forward to making the relatively short journey from Stone to see you all again in the future.

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